1. Related Field
The present invention relates generally to automatic tracking of distinctive features of users operating electronic equipment. More particularly, the invention relates to a portable device according to the preamble of claim 1.
2. Description of Related Art
Laptops with integrated eye-trackers are known. Unfortunately, the known solutions are comparatively bulky, and therefore the design becomes relatively thick, i.e. in closed/inactive mode, the laptop has a rather high profile. Naturally, this is undesired because portable devices, such as laptops, in general should be as compact and slim as possible. Nevertheless, bulkiness as such is associated with an advantage. Namely, the optical remote sensing systems of today's eye-trackers at times consume relatively large amounts of power. Therefore, substantial thermal power dissipation must be handled, and of course, in this context, a larger volume is more useful than smaller ditto. The trend where each generation of laptop is thinner than the foregoing generation is problematic because the available space in the lid becomes very limited. This places severe constraints on which components that can be used to implement eye-trackers and similar devices.
US 2005/0110887 shows an example of a mobile communication terminal with a main body and a foldable display body. A camera is here positioned in a hinge unit interconnecting the display body and the main body. The camera is rotatable around the hinge axis to register images of the user as well as subjects/objects in front of the user. Thus, a very versatile camera function is attained. However, since the camera is freely rotatable relative to both the main body and the display body it would be complicated to use the camera for any purposes other than simple image registering, such as for eye-tracking.
In the light of the above, it is challenging to accomplish a compact and yet resourceful portable device that is equipped with an optical remote sensing system for eye-, gaze, gesture and/or facial feature tracking and/or user identification through face or iris recognition or hand gesture detection.